Sunday, September 30, 2012

Though that title may lead you to believe that I’m finally
going to weigh in on the dismissal of Manny Acta from Thursday, it actually
refers to someone else exiting stage left, as I’ve decided to walk away from
writing about the Indians on these Interwebs on a permanent basis. While I know that I took some “time off” last
off-season and there will be those that will only believe there will be permanence to this when they fail to see
3,000 words from these fingers flying at them every couple of days, the time for me to move on from this endeavor has arrived.

Maybe you could posit that this is the product of the apathy
that has set in around the fanbase regarding the organization, particularly after seeing a fanciful alternate universe presented (tongue firmly in cheek) this week by AC , but the
greater truth is that I’ve reached a point in my life in which this no longer
fits neatly – or even messily – into any part of it. I suppose that I could continue on in some
fashion on a part-time basis, but (as you may have noticed) I generally either
go all-in (inexplicably finding 4K words on bullpen usage) or simply pull the band-aid right
off.

So as the band-aid is torn off, the end has arrived for me,
some 7+ years after sending out the following e-mail to 11 of my buddies, prior
to the 2005 season:

That question of “Too much time on my hands?” is
particularly fun to look at in hindsight as each of those 11 people (plus me)
have seen their lives change drastically from that time and the evolution of my
life and the involvement of this website is something that I need to stop
intertwining. Interestingly, that
missive was saved by the person who set up this site (Tim Bennett…or “t-bone” as he’s known in these
parts) on a laptop over beers and
wings one night at the Lakewood Winking Lizard and, after a site redesign a few
years later by Joe Popa (a Tribe fan in Chicago who worked in Graphic Design
with my sister), this place evolved into a corner of the Internet that I hope attempted
to inject logic, analysis, and humor into following our Cleveland Indians. Starting with the days in which I used to
write as “Pat Tabler” as my nom de plume (before a cease-and-desist request
from Bob DiBiasio, who was somehow afraid that people would think that the REAL
Pat Tabler was pounding out thousands of words on Ben Broussard and Jason Davis
on a bi-weekly basis) through the evolution of this site through these last 8 seasons,
we’ve had happy days and sad ones, hopeful days and dark ones, but as Tribe fans we always soldiered on, connected by
our complicated collective love of baseball and our (sometimes misguided and often unrequited)
love of our Tribe.

Realizing that this is a place that many come to parse
through the happenings at the corner of Carnegie and Ontario, with a particularly
major announcement coming earlier in the week, you can read this enlightening piece from B-Pro’s John Perrotto, in which he interviewed the now-deposed Manny Acta for some insight. In it, Acta says (in part) that, “When
people say pitching and defense wins championships, it doesn’t mean bullpen and
defense…when people talk about pitching and defense, they mean starting
pitching, too, and our guys haven’t stepped up and gotten it done this season.” Or you can read the piece from SI.com’s Jay Jaffe that listed Acta as on the “hot seat”, with Jaffe positing that, “there’s
little debate that a team with a young core featuring Carlos Santana, Jason
Kipnis, Asdrubal Cabrera, Michael Brantley and Shin-Soo Choo should be more
competitive”, then going further to say that, “Antonetti and club president
Mark Shapiro bear some of the blame for the dismal showing, but it’s not on
them to keep players engaged on a day-to-day basis…such a slide may suggest
that the players have stopped responding to Acta.” And that last bit is something that’s interesting
to consider given Castrovince’s nugget that “several hours after the news of
his dismissal had gone public, Acta had only heard from one of his players
offering condolences” as it goes back to whether the talent on hand was flawed
on the development of that talent was lacking or both. But that will all come out in the wash, as
will the new manager for the Tribe – be it Sandy Alomar without the interim tag
or with Terry Francona stepping back into the managerial fray – and I’m not going
to be doing the one doing the laundry anymore.
Because my days of dropping block quotes between run-on sentences flush
with too many parentheticals and dashes that would make my any English teacher
I’ve ever had shudder have ended.

That said, realizing that this place has evolved into
something that I have grown very proud of and want it to continue as a small
corner of logic and thoughtfulness in an ocean of overreaction, vitriol, and
worse, The DiaTribe will continue as Al Ciammaichella has agreed to captain this ship
on a full-time basis, with the idea that some other people may come on to help
Al from time to time because…well, because this is a lot to handle for just one
person at any stage of their life. Be
assured that Al will continue the high level of analysis and writing (spreading
his wings from just writing about the Minors) that he’s exhibited here in the
past and – if others were to hop aboard – they would be equally impressive as
I’m not about to water down the level of discourse that I like to think that has
been achieved here.

This has been an amazing experience as I’ve met countless
people through my writing that I now count among some of my closest friends and
I’m constantly humbled when I meet (in real life) a reader who recognizes my
name, casually asks if I’m the Paul Cousineau that writes about the Indians,
then spends the next 20 minutes talking Tribe with me. Whether it’s happened at a wedding (in front
of The DiaBride, who stood there…mouth agape) or at a tee-ball game for my
oldest son, where his coach professed to be a regular reader, I’ve been nothing
but amazed that me putting my pen to paper – so to speak – those 7+ years ago
allowed me these opportunities and this experience.

Though I’ve never been the most…um, interactive writer
(and even in the Twitter Age, there is something about limiting my thoughts to 140 characters that I still
am unable to do) on the Internet, the contributions of the serial commenters
and the e-mails that I get from readers brought me great pleasure as it
afforded me the opportunity to engage with a very smart, very tuned-in faction
of a fanbase that I’ve lost hope in too many times to count, thinking that
they’d been dumbed-down by the coverage by the mainstream media of this team
and the blood-sucking vapidity of sports talk radio, too eager to focus on the negative and not to enjoy baseball
for what it is – a diversion that is meant to provide an escape and some level
of enjoyment, even if the performance on the field makes that difficult at
times.

Ultimately though, sports – and specifically for me, baseball – is
something to enjoy and to appreciate. And while disappointment is burned into
our DNA as Tribe fans, that sense of enjoying a game as simply a place to lose
yourself for a short time is at the heart of my love for this game and for this
team. And that enjoyment, that love,
that passion that I think came across in my writing, is the same love that I
hope to pass on to my children, the way that my parents did to me. And that’s where my true passion is – and always has been –
with my wonderful and growing children and with my loving and lovely wife (who
has been called The DiaBride to her face too many times for me to count), who
encouraged me throughout this endeavor, never asking that I take a break or
that I stop writing about the Indians (still) because she knew how much I
enjoyed it. With my children getting
older and getting (more) involved in their own sports and with my (real) job
growing in wonderful ways that I would have never dreamed possible, the time has come
for me to get my enjoyment from the things that please me most – my family and
then…somewhere WAY down the line, the Indians.

That’s not to say that I’ve given up on this team or this
organization as others have (particularly as of late), just to say that I won’t
be banging out thousands of words as my catharsis for watching this game. Those thousands (maybe hundreds) of words will instead be
articulated with my family down at the corner of Carnegie and Ontario.

So I hope to see you there sometime soon, I thank you for reading the thoughts of a slightly-obsessed (never at a loss for words) former member of the Little Indians Fan Club, and, as always, Go
Tribe…

Wow, Paul, I was not expecting to wake up to this article this beautiful Sunday morning! Your writing will be missed. You have done an amazing job over the years. Thanks for the mention in the article. It was a bitter sweet article to read on my wife's birthday.

You are doing it for all the right reasons, so again thank you and congratulations on the 7+ years of great work. I will continue to read Al's writing, he does do a nice job. Enjoy the family and GO TRIBE! Hope to see you around the neighborhood.

Paul,I said it last year and I'll say it again. Enjoy your family, they are way more important than this blog. But, be sure we will all miss you greatly. I'm glad that you are leaving this in Al's hands, as I'm sure he and others, as you said can carry on the high standards that you have set. I do hope that once in a while, you will weigh in with a "guest" article just so we can have your opinion on what is or should be going on with our beloved tribe.

'Tis the way of the blog to bubble up and, eventually, burst. One can but admire it while it lasts.

Glad to have been a reader for many of the years you've been hammering out opinions on the Tribe. I hope you'll continue to enjoy discussions on bullpen manufacture, prospect handling and platoon splits as you focus on some other priorities in life.

Paul, you're really going to be missed. I discovered the Diatribe a couple years ago and it has become a part of my Sunday morning ritual. Thank you so much for sharing your writing with us these past few years. Best of luck, and enjoy every minute of time with the family, these kids grow up so very fast.

On one hand, I am really going to miss reading your posts. On the other, I am happy for you as it is clear that you are putting Tribe fandom in its proper place in your life. It's important and a lot of fun, but as families grow and life changes hopefully obsessions with sports diminish.

Thank you for the regular doses of sanity. I know that you're leaving the blog in great hands too, but it won't be quite the same.

Paul, you and I have followed a similar paths. I'm far from Cleveland now and don't make it "home" as much as I'd like, but all the same. We grew up with the same 1980s Indians teams, we were the same age for the 1990s Tribe teams and had kids about the same time (mine are almost 7 and 5). In an effort to find some decent writing on the Indians, I found you near the beginnings of this blog. I have been amazed, given how my life had changed over this time, that you were able to keep putting in 10,000 words each week. I know that my attention span has waned.

Paul, I wish you the best and will miss you horribly over the next years. As someone else mentioned, your articles on Sunday morning were always saved for last. I hope some day we meet in person.

Al, I wish you a lot of luck in continuing this blog and will look forward to your musings when they show up in my RSS feed. If I can help in any way, please say.

Thank you for all of your thoughtful posts over the years. I will greatly miss the chance to learn from your perspective, and my Sunday mornings have had a big hole blown right through them. Best of luck with your family and career, but (selfishly) I hope we see you cannot resist the temptation to sometimes weigh in with a couple thousand well crafted words!

Thank you for all the information and entertainment you have provided to us through the years. My knowledge of the Tribe will greatly diminish in your absence.

Commitment to family comes above even the things we love to do, so this is more for Al and others that will take the reins...this morning, just before reading this post, I was on another blog that covers my much under-reported college football/basketball (think small B1G) where the two writers were reluctantly asking for donations to keep the site going. I had my credit card out without hesitation. If this site is ever in jeopardy of shutting down, please ask for voluntary donations first. I think you would be surprised at the results. I have always thought you guys should be paid for what you are providing us all.

I don't comment on articles or blogs ever, but I have been religiously reading your posts for about two years now and wanted to express my thanks for your hard work. The thoughtfulness and passion that you've applied while dissecting my favorite sports team has been much appreciated. Best of luck and thank you.

What a classy way to go out, and knowing you through your writing there could be no other way. My enjoyment of the Indians has only grown as I enter my late twenties, as I've finally realized that baseball (and sports in general) are meant to be fun and not something that leads my life. I just enjoy watching/reading about the Indians, win or lose, and this blog has only added to that enjoyment. Best of luck to you and your family, and thank for adding joy to my love of the Indians, and the city of Cleveland.

Paul, Thanks for all the hard work. You will truly be missed. I would like to dedicate this poem to your memory.

A Fond Farewell

It is in fact truly summer’s game,It crosses boundaries rich and poor, young and old aplenty,Oh why did Skinner have to stop Kenny?The Yankees, the Angels, the Red Sox they spend and they spend,While the Indians value every penny,Oh why did Skinner have to stop Kenny?Some years are agonogizing and hard to stomach,Other years like ’95, ’97, and 07’ bring heartbreak to many,Oh why did Skinner have to stop Kenny?As Tribe fans we are conditioned to wait and wait,Wishing for a championship on the shores of the Lake,But we soldier into the future,Waiting for that one special day,A World Series Championship would be the best of any,Oh Why did Skinner have to stop Kenny?

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